face they put on posters is not mitch mcconnell's face. they put obama's face. >> i disagree slightly. >> explain that. >> i think everything sam said is true. it led to conservative movement including the republican party. i do think the anger they've felt about obama is as equal part of that. they're looking for the republican party to express that anger. >> republicans don't hate obama as much as they do? >> if you're voting for anything that doesn't stop obama care, then you're supporting obama care. all this is being driven in part by the donors that sam talked about but because the base of the party, the primary voting base has moved so far to the right because of this political cultural backlash against obama. >> thank you, david corn, guys. i think we're on the same page roughly. it's brand. it's the name. it may not be ethnic although a lot of its i think. >>> coming up, republican kamikaze caucus is back at work insisting if they stand firm next time they'll defund the affordable care act. guess who is leading the charge? mr. ted cruz. >> mad money -- angry money. many have

was stupid. john boehner warned against it. mitch mcconnell warned against it. you're absolutely right. there's ways to do it. had we kept the focus on the failures of obama care, we'd have more. >> why were they into going along with this. boehner the last day. mitch mcconnell the last two or three days. why did they sustain this to fight for something and averting for it if they didn't have a belief in that approach? >> because this is where the strategy is. >> they were leading from behind. >> yes, they were. >> i think they had to walk members through it. from boehner's perspective, he didn't have the votes to do anything else until he had the votes. >> let me try something. if he had gotten outside the box and -- i'll come up with cuts, across the board cuts, take them back to where they were at another time. would they have changed their direction, or did it have to be obama? >> it had to be obama care. this had to be the thing. this is what we talked about all august. you know what, they had to walk through the process. it wasn't a good process. it was a painful process. the lea

bernstein, zechrlina maxwell, thank you. mitch mcconnell is so afraid of his tea party challenger he is actually taking credit for shutting down the government. it's actually he is so far ahead of the tea party challenger, he is willing to do that. his democratic opponent is giving him credit for shutting down the government. later in a "last word" experiment that could go very, very wrong. we will try to snow washington how two people can respectfully disagree with the last word chaplain, and atheist penn gillette. we'll give the! ly chaplain five minutes to try to convert penn gillette. [ female announcer ] it figures...on your busiest day you see the gray. try root touch-up by nice 'n easy. just brush our permanent color matching creme right where you need it. then rinse. in ten minutes zap those grays and get on with your day. nice 'n easy root touch-up. >>> what can an atheist and priest teach washington about how to have a civilized discussion about the budget? that's coming up later. next, mitch mcconnell is being attacked by his republican opponent and his democratic opponent fo

you. mitch mcconnell is so afraid of his tea party challenger he is actually taking credit for shutting down the government. it's actually he is so far ahead of the tea party challenger, he is willing to do that. his democratic opponent is giving him credit for shutting down the government. later in a "last word" experiment that could go very, very wrong. we will try to snow washington how two people can respectfully disagree with the last word chaplain, and atheist penn gillette. we'll give the! chaplain five minutes to try to convert penn gillette. okay ladies, whenever you're ready. thank you. thank you. i got this. no, i'll get it! no, let me get this. seriously. hey, let me get it. ah, uh. i don't want you to pay for this. it's not happening, honey. let her get it. she got her safe driving bonus check from allstate last week. and it's her treat. what about a tip? oh, here's one... get an allstate agent. nice! [ female announcer ] switch today and get two safe driving bonus checks a year for driving safely. only from allstate. call an allstate agent and get a quote now. jus

kentucky primary that year which was essentially a death match against mainstream mitch mcconnell's protege who rand paul was running against. the protege was a guy senator mcconnell had hand picked to become his junior senator in the job. mitch mcconnell expected to hand that junior senate seat to whoever he wanted, but that did not happen because rand paul beat mitch mcconnell's handpicked guy. senior senator mitch mcconnell is senior senator to junior senator rand paul even though senator mcconnell tried so publicly to keep the senator paul thing from ever happening in the first place. it's kind of an awkward thing, right? once rand paul won the seat, the uneasy resolution of the whole thing in kentucky came when the campaign manager for rand paul in 2010 left the rand paul camp and went to work for the enemy. he went to work for mitch in 2010 left the rand paul camp and went to work for the enemy. he went to work for mitch mcconnell. the campaign guy's name is jesse benton. he is a longtime, lifelong rand paul/ron paul loyalist. now he's supposed to seem like a mitch mcconnell loyalist?

republican in the senate, mitch mcconnell in kentucky. these guys are all facing primary challengers. they are all now facing negative ads that are running right now in their home states. negative ads, primary challengers, and all the rest, from what is supposed to be their own side. the senate conservatives fund, the tea party group, that's trying to throw mitch mcconnell out of his senate seat, they are already, already in 2013, doing big, six-figure ad buys against mitch mcconnell in his home state. >> when kentucky needed mitch mcconnell the most, he let us down. now he's asking us to give us six more years in washington. senate conservative action is responsible for the content of this message. >> that is not the first, but it's the most recent ad against mitch mcconnell, run by a conservative group against him in his home state. that buy was made two days ago. it was made from more than $300,000 to be spent in kentucky. so where are they getting all the money to attack all these incumbent republican senators and run all these super professional-looking big buy attack ads? where

. liberals, i'm going to convince you tonight that this guy right here, mitch mcconnell, is really a good guy. you can deal with him. just take those record number of filibusters and cast them aside. they really weren't real. just let's cast aside that his number-one goal was to defeat president obama. cast aside that his number two goal was to make sure that obama care never got implemented. come on now. we can get harry and mitch together to do a deal. and everything is going to be okay, the shutdown will be over with, we won't default, we'll pay our bills, life will be good. and we'll be the america that we want to be. i'm sorry, folks. i've -- can take on some challenges, but i can't sell that one. i can't sell that one. and you know what? because there's no way anyone could sell it, because it simply isn't the truth. i'm telling you tonight, folks, this is the truth. you cannot deal with this guy. this is all about political cover right now. this is all about republican senators being able to go back home with some terrible poll numbers and say, it's not my fault. not my fault at all

launches an assault on ashley judd to protect his pal mitch mcconnell. >> her own grandmother says she is a hollywood liberal. >> we'll tell you why old turd blossom is so desperate. fox news will always have a steve doocy. >> face-lift perhaps? >> good to have you with us, folks. thanks for watching. this opening story tonight, i'm telling you, i'm going to try to maintain my poise here. this should be a day of celebration for conservatives as they continue to chip away at the backbone of america. >> we're announcing that we are moving forward with a change to our national delivery schedule. the postal service delivery schedule will consist of six days of package delivery and five days of mail delivery. >> this story is everything i don't like about republicans. the slow death of the united states post office. folks, its under way. and americans just seem to sit back and well, let's accept it. that's the way it is. this once proud american institution will no longer deliver first class mail on saturday starting this summer. aren't we proud? moving forward now. and i hate to be the one to

steele, joan walsh. good to see you again. >>> coming up, things just got worse for mitch mcconnell. his campaign chief who used to work for rand paul just got caught on tape saying between you and me, i'm sort of holding my nose for two years, because what we're doing here is going to be a big benefit to rand in 2016. that's rand as in rand paul, kentucky's other senator. when your own campaign manager doesn't like you it's no wonder your safe seat just got toss had in the toss-up column. >>> bob filner being accused of sexual harassment. the calls for his removal are growing even louder. his former campaign manager who counts herself among his victims. >>> plus, one official comes up with a new reason to oppose immigration. it's the work of satan and signals the end of the world. >>> and finally, let me finish tonight with the important difference between a crime and a hate crime. this is "hardball," the place for politics. t on the streets. [ whispering ] shhh. it's only a dream. and we have home insurance. but if we made a claim, our rate would go up... [ whispering ] shhh. you did i

he's the campaign manager for mitch mcconnell who supported rand paul's opponent last time around and then of course came onboard. he was not originally in that camp. this is the mitch mcconnell race and jesse benton is mitch mcconnell's campaign manager. listen. >> between you and me, i'm sort of holding my nose for two years because what we're doing here is going to be a big benefit to rand in '16 so that's my long vision. >> he doesn't deny this is his voice talking about holding his nose as he works for mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell and jesse benton posted pictures to show they are trying to make a check out of this. it isn't a joke. >> it hurts mitch mcconnell more than jesse benton. mitch mcconnell is a measurrcen politician. whatever it takes to win, he does. that's been his m.o. that's politics about winning and mitch mcconnell wants to win. he decided the only way to prevent from losing a primary challenge is see if pauls would help. they cut a deal. the pauls are helping. is this a marriage of convenience? yes. is this a marriage of love? no one believes that mitch mcconn

cliff. president obama said it should never happen again. and mitch mcconnell agrees with him. >> the 16-day government shutdown. >> federal workers going back to their jobs. >> finally came to an end. >> let's be clear. there are no winners here. >> back from the brink. at what cost? >> $24 billion. >> $24 billion hit to the economy. >> how business is done in this town has to change. >> will washington learn from the crisis to face the next battle? >> a wake-up call. >> this fight. this debate will continue. >> although maybe not. >> that's not a surprise. >> to see the house engage in a profile in courage. that was a remarkable victory. >> house republicans got nothing in the deal. >> what they did end up getting were lower poll numbers. >> putting it mildly. >> republican favorability ratings went to an all time low. >> some senator from arizona, he was saying today. >> there is a fool's errand. >> the shut down has been a fool's errand. >> it was a fool's errand. >> this is really a fight for the soul of the republican party. >> that doesn't mean we can't make progress. >> the pr

the brink, at least certainly when it came to the fiscal cliff, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell is the republican who folks go to to say, help us get a deal. >> you know, i think that's part of the problem, but i think boehner's biggest problem is he needs to redefine victory. in the grand bargain talks in 2011, he very well could have said, listen, i brought spending levels down. they are keeping sequestration in place for longer than harry reid wanted in this deal. that's somewhat of a victory. he should have started with much more attainable goals instead of defunding the whole health care. if they'd said, let's go for the medical device tax delay, they maybe could have gotten it. that's the problem with speaker boehner. he's defining victory in a way that's almost unattainable. when he has victory at hand, he can't claim it. >> luke, i want to ask you, you are familiar with speaker boehner. he shouts you out at press conferences from time to time. you know the man. what is the spin here from boehner's office? how do they characterize this as anything other than a debacle? >> we

with the fresh scent of gain. >>> if you guessed mitch mcconnel has the most stupidest staff in congress you win. that is next. this is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. a hairline fracture to the mandible and contusions to the metacarpus. what do you see? um, i see a duck. be more specific. i see the aflac duck. i see the aflac duck out of work and not making any money. i see him moving in with his parents and selling bootleg dvds out of the back of a van. dude, that's your life. remember, aflac will give him cash to help cover his rent, car payments and keep everything as normal as possible. i see lunch. [ monitor beeping ] let's move on. [ male announcer ] find out what a hospital stay could really cost you at aflac.com. [ male announcer ] to hold a patent that has changed the modern world... would define you as an innovator. t

reform is dead, and mitch mcconnell is gloating. we beat the liberals. senator bernie sanders is here to react. >>> conservatives said the market would die without mitt romney as president. >> the dow is sitting at this five-year high. it's actually been up for ten out of the last 11 sessions. >> we've got to stop being the stupid. >> bobby jindal. >> no, the republican party does not need to change its principles. >> with the same old lines. karen finney and eugene robinson take on the losing strategy. >>> senator saxby chambliss of georgia is a lame duck. tonight we look at his flawed legacy. >>> and more on the fallout from the pbs documentary "the untouchables." why isn't wall street on trial? mike papantonio, head of the national trial lawyers association is here to explain. good to have you with us folks, thanks for watching. the fight is on. the attempt to steal the next presidential election by stealing the electoral college are facing resistance, and the resistance is working. earlier today rnc chairman reince priebus was rewarded for his failures of the 2012 election by being r

showdown between harry reid and mitch mcconnell over the so-called nuclear option. the one would allow the senate to approve executive branch nominees with a simple majority. at issue is the historic and unprecedented obstruction of president obama's cabinet picks. throughout most of time, a president's executive nominees were rarely questioned, but not today. as is the case with a handful of other civilized traditions on capitol hill, under this congress the once civil process of allowing a president to fill his cabinet has become a contentious, slow moving and highly partisan battle. today senate republicans have slow walked the confirmation of president obama's nominees at unprecedented levels. in fact, if they keep obstructing at this rate the gop will have filibustered more of president obama's executive branch nominees than any other president in american history combined. so, changing this process would seem to be a reasonable idea, but according to mitch mcconnell it will spell the end of democracy as we know it. last week senator mcconnell's campaign tweeted out this pho

. you gotta taste this soup. skroo. >> if you guessed mitch mcconnel has the most stupidest staff in congress you win. that is next. its three cleaning zones with dynamic power bristles reach between teeth with more brush movements to remove up to 100% more plaque than a regular manual brush. and even 76% more plaque than sonicare flexcare in hard to reach areas. oral-b deep sweep 5000 power brush. life opens up when you do. ♪ [ male announcer ] every car we build must make adrenaline pump and pulses quicken. ♪ to help you not just to stay alive... but feel alive. the new c-class is no exception. it's a mercedes-benz through and through. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. irk >> and the rewrite tonight the contest in the congress staff's stupidest staff. the stunningly stupid staff of mitch mcconnel. here is a letter that his staff wrote to the assistant secretary of military affairs. i would appreciate your review and response i have enclosed a copy for your information please direct any in inquiries sincerel

, there are 15 senators that signed it two weeks ago. even though mitch mcconnell has a lot of pressure, it still hasn't pushed him. in fact, right now eric cantor last night talked to national review and said i don't think a shutdown is the way to approach this in terms of defunding obama care. we don't have enough votes in the senate yet. eric cantor is usually pretty aware of where the republicans and the caucus are. i think there are republicans, not even just the john mccains, but pretty conservative people who are saying this is not a great idea. >> let me just say one comment there. there are some sane republicans, yes. but i think there's a great difference, which is very interesting, from what happened 18 years ago. the big political struggle during that shutdown was who is to blame? is it president clinton's fault we had a government shutdown? is it the republicans' fault? whoever's fault it is, it's terrible and we're going to exact political price from them. no one was claiming we wanted it. here you've got republicans saying we want a shutdown, we want a shutdown. if there

what it takes to stop obama care, and though they were not talking about mitch mcconnell, but rather his conservative primary challenger, matt bevin. that's all right, mitch, times like this one can often rely on the folk wisdom of the ages, passed down to generation after generation. >> there's an old saying that politi politics, it ain't bean bag. >> politics, it ain't bean bag, brother. and no one has seen that axiom quite like robert costa, joining us live from washington. robert, we're delighted to have you with us. i don't think anyone has gotten as deep into the excrement with republicans. you look at a public conservative group endorsing the challenger against the number-one democrat in the senate. is this, robert, just the beginning of a republican republican fallout from this shutdown and this default tragedy? >> the government shutdown may have ended. but when you look ahead to 2014 and you see former governor palin's statement, the republican party, especially the right, just starting to gear up for what's going to be a major class within the party. if you were wit

were, the people like mitch mcconnell. and at the last minute boehner and the president said look let's move on. i give credit to mitch who i normally don't salute much, but he basically said this is going to be a catastrophe unless we change our position. >> right. you now -- >> and they don't like that. >> this civil war that this whole episode revealed has gotten worse to the extent that you cite mitch mcconnell as the guy that prevented the republicans from pulling everybody else with him off the cliff. today the senate conservative fund endorsed the primary opponent. so there's no white flag for peace in the party. things have gotten worse. you have what eric erickson is saying. >> he basically said kiss off. he did. i have to hand him credit for the way he responded. >> he said kiss off, but this is not going anywhere. this fight, and when we come back january 15th, february 7th, the republicans still have to -- >> let's go to a tea party expert that on this show. matt kibe. he said a split in the republican party is quote, a real possibility. let's listen to matt. >> grassr

republican senator mitch mcconnell. but there's more to the story than meets the eye. we'll unravel the mystery, coming up. does your mouth often feel dry? a dry mouth can be a side effect of many medications but it can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath. that's why there's biotene. available as an oral rinse, toothpaste, spray or gel, biotene can provide soothing relief, and it helps keep your mouth healthy, too. remember, while your medication is doing you good, a dry mouth isn't. biotene -- for people who suffer from dry mouth. consider this: when the storms are this powerful, the batteries had better be powerful, too. introducing duracell quantum. only duracell quantum has a hi-density core. and that means more fuel, more power, more performance than the next leading brand. so, whether you're out on the front lines or you're back home, now you have the power. new duracell quantum. trusted everywhere. they always have. they always will. that's why you take charge of your future. your retirement. ♪ ameriprise advisors can help you like they've helped millions of others. listeni

leader mitch mcconnell. here's how the great ezra klein at the "washington post" summed up what they agreed to and what was voted in in the senate tonight. "reid and mcconnell have come to a deal on filibuster reform. the deal is this -- the filibuster will not be reformed." what harry reid and mitch mcconnell agreed to today was a package of small changes that will marginally speed up business in the senate and will allow bills to be debated without as many opportunities to obstruct them. it will reduce the number of hours the senate has to wait before confirming judges and some cabinet nominees. but there is no challenge at all here to the minority's ability to force a supermajority vote on routine business as a matter of routine. the problem in the senate, right? has been that they are not able to get anything done. the improvement on that today is that now they're not going to be able to get anything done faster. nobody was ever talking about taking away the filibuster completely. idea was to make it something that hurt a little, that actually required some commitment, that

, mitch mcconnell is going to bring this forward to a republican caucus meeting later in the senate. they'll weigh in a little bit. whatever deal, though, comes out of the senate, presumably that optimism that harry reid and mitch mcconnell had on the floor earlier, whatever comes out is going to unrun it into a house gop conference which will not like it. so the question becomes, to what degree will john boehner say no thanks and maybe amend a senate deal, perhaps the house tries to do their own thing last minute or do they just sort of bite the bullet and pass what the senate is handing over? and martin, i'll give you a quick history lesson. we have seen this movie play out before. during the fiscal cliff, mitch mcconnell and joe biden, they struck a deal at 4:00 in the morning on new year's day. >> i remember. >> reporter: the senate passed that with 70-plus something votes. the house gop immediately rejected it. but what happened later that night? john boehner put it on the floor, it passed through, eric cantor voted against it, mccarthy voted against it, boehner supported it. b

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that looked suspiciously like it could have been a big boon for republican senator mitch mcconnell. but there's more to the story than meets the eye. we'll unravel the mystery, coming up. (vo) you are a business pro. maestro of project management. baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. (aaron) purrrfect. (vo) meee-ow, business pro. meee-ow. go national. go like a pro. life with crohn's disease ois a daily game of "what if's". what if my abdominal pain and cramps come back? what if the plane gets delayed? what if i can't hide my symptoms? what if? but what if the most important question is the one you're not asking? what if the underlying cause of your symptoms is damaging inflammation? for help getting the answers you need, talk to your doctor and visit crohnsandcolitisinfo.com to get your complimentary q&a book, with information from experts on your condition. a confident retirement. those

party don't like the word "compromise." >> minority leader mitch mcconnell saying another government shutdown is off the table. he told the national review, quote, one of my favorite sayings is an old kentucky saying. there's no education in the second kick of a mule. the first kick of the mule was in 1995. the second one was the last 16 days. a government shutdown is off the table. we're not going to do it. but senator ted cruz is not ruling that out. >> i would do anything, and i will continue to do anything i can to stop the train wreck that is obama care, and i think our focus should not be on d.c. politics. it should be on the people who are getting hurt. >> all right. so here are the key dates that we're watching. december 13th, the deadline for the new budget report for the house and senate. january 15th, the deadline for funding the government. and the debt ceiling deadline, that comes on back on february the 7th. i want to bring in our company, karen tumulty and perry bacon. great to see both you have as we move through the rundown. karen, back to the president's agenda, the

. >>> coming up, things just got worse for mitch mcconnell, his campaign chief just got caught on tape saying this, quote -- between you and me i'm holding my nose for two years, because what we're going here will be a big benefit to rand in to 2016. when your own campaign manager doesn't like you, it's no wonder your safe seat just got tossed into the -- and the calls for bob filner's removal from office are growing louder. we have his former deputy campaign manager, who counts herself among him victims. >>> plus one former texas republican official has come up with a new reason to oppose obama care. it's the work of satan and signals the end of the world. >>> finally let me finish tonight between the important difference between a crime and hate crime. this is "hardball," the place for politics. but, dad, you've got... [ voice of dennis ] allstate. with accident forgiveness, they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. [ voice of dennis ] indeed. are you in good hands? like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah.

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break, senator majority leader mitch mcconnell finally breaks his silence on the dpgop's push to defund obam care. we will discuss the wacko bird's clipped wings next on "now." ♪ [ male announcer ] now, taking care of things at home is just a tap away. ♪ introducing at&t digital life... ♪ ...personalized home security and automation... [ lock clicks ] ...that lets you be closer to home. that's so cool. [ male announcer ] get $100 in instant savings when you order digital life smart security. limited availability in select markets. ♪ a confident retirement. those dreams, there's just no way we're going to let them die. ♪ like they helped millions of others. by listening. planning. working one on one. that's what ameriprise financial does. that's what they can do with you. that's how ameriprise puts more within reach. ♪ >>> yesterday the senate wacko bird was kicked out of the nest. the top two republicans in the upper chamber, minority leader mitch mcconnell and whip john cornyn cut loose freshman senator ted cruz and dismissed his crusade to filibuster his own party's govern

what happened now. he's got an enemy in mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell has a tea party opponent. and he's a pretty smart guy. if he decides he wants to make life miserable for ted cruz, he k but on the other hand, he's not there to legislate, he's not there to be a member of the club. he gets his power from his martyrdom. >> so well said. i tell you, almost every demagogue has used righteous indignation as their plea. i've been screwed. they weren't strong like i am. righteous indignation. he's got that hurt, evangelical look in his face. >> he said we could have won this fight if if hadn't been for all those wimps in the senate, that the house stood strong. and so, as howard said, he is unbowed here. the good news is, is that for everybody else, other than ted cruz, every other republican who went along, was pushed along, there is no reward for this carjacking. there is only pain. at the end of the day, the republican brand is at an all-time low. the internal tensions, the civil war within the republican party has not been resolved. i think it's been exacerbated and will contin

country now. as we look at mitch mcconnell, he's among seven gop senators who could be primaried because they dared to compromise on the shutdown. do you think that mcconnell will get blow-back or could the fact that obama care is actually doing well in kentucky insulate him from a party attack? >> well, he actually already has been primaried. a mat named matt bevins is running against him so he already has a tea party opponent and a pretty strong one. mitch mcconnell has been lying to the people of kentucky for the last four years about the affordable care act and those lies are catching up to him now because people are beginning to understand exactly the benefits of the affordable care act and it is not what mitch mcconnell has been representing over the last few years. we've already had almost 400 businesses representing 67,000 people sign up or begin the application process in kentucky. we've had almost half of our uninsured, 280,000 people have visited the website. we've got a 20,000 individuals who are now enrolled in insurance policies through it. so we're having a wonderf

top republican minority leader mitch mcconnell, taking him on for his role in brokering a deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. jim demint announced it is endorsing mcconnell's tea party primary opponent bev vin, not afraid to stand up to the establishment and he will do what it takes to stop obama care, perhaps more proof in the words of our first read team, the shutdown has brought the gop to the brink of an idealogical civil war. nbc news senior political editor mark murray is with me now. mcconnell's team wasting no time responding saying bevin has the dubious honor of standing with a self-serving d.c. fund raising group that made its name by recruiting unelectable candidates that ensured barack obama a majority in the senate. he has a gar gant tu an cash advantage but is this something to worry about? >> two things to worry about, primary and general election challenge. we have seen mitch mcconnell in the comments he's given suggests he's more worried about the general election than primary. it's important to take a step back. we have seen interparty fight

could have been a big boon for republican senator mitch mcconnell. but there's more to the story than meets the eye. we'll unravel the mystery, coming up. >>> there is an unsolved mystery about last night's bill to open the government and it centers on this little piece of legislate i have language slipped in in the 11th hour. section 123, you be section 3a6 of public law 100-676 is amended by striking both occurrences of $575,000,000 and inserting in lieu thereof $2,918,000,000. confusing. but what it amounts to is $1.2 billion more in authorization for an infrastructure project on the ohio river that just happens to be adjacent to the state of kentucky, that just happen happens to be the home state of the senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell, who finds himself in a tough re-election battle. the center of conservative fund rushed to call it the kentucky kickback. but how did over $1 billion for ohio river construction project actually get into the bill? and the mitch mcconnell really the culprit? here's the story. way back in 1988, congress authorized $775 million for the ohmstead

republican leader mitch mcconnell set to announce a series of reforms on the senate floor that fall far short of their demands. one more? one more. >> we're going to change the rules. we cannot continue in this way. so i hope we can get something that the republicans will work with us on but it won't be a handshake. we tried that last time. it didn't work. >> that was harry reid at the senate in december saying any deal to reform the filibuster would not be a handshake deal. today a "handshake agreement" is how roll call newspaper described a number of the filibuster reforms that harry reid agreed to with mitch mcconnell. wow. harry reid. yeah. this was the day everybody had been wait for in terms of changing how the senate operates. and if you hear sad trombones, that's why. on election day this year americans voted overwhelmingly to re-elect president obama four more years. that same day people also voted to re-elect senate democrats and to send a large number of them to congress, more than the republicans. more senate democrats than republicans which put harry reid in charge of the s

from minority leader, mitch mcconnell. >>> speaking of senator mcconnell, he was the butt of a joet by president obama at this weekend's white house correspondents' dinner >>> some folks still don't think i spend enough time with congress. why don't you get a drink with mitch mcconnell, they ask. really? why don't you get a drink with mitch mcconnell. >>> the kentucky republican's campaign tweeted this picture of a senator at a bar with a beer sitting next to an empty stool with with a glass of red wine. no word if the president plans to take him up on that drink. that's your morning's dish of scrambled politics >>> parts of eastern iowa are dealing with severe weather, hail ranging from pea size to two inches fell in waterloo causing millions of dollars of damage to cars. that hail left covering that in some places looked more like snow. speaking of snow, this is bill karins with the weather. >>> you know what's coming. >> it is almost may. give me a break. >> it was so nice in some areas of the country. it wasn't very nice from d.c. to southern new england. we are looking at a war

war within the republican party. you have mitch mcconnell, who's actively been trying to court the tea party his entire re-election campaign in direct opposition to ted cruz. yesterday it went pretty unnoticed that the chairman of the rnc sent out an e-mail saying, stand with ted, make d.c. listen. you had the head of the rnc next to ted cruz opposing mitch mcconnell. that's very bad optics for a lot of folks in the republican party. they don't want to see that. they make the argument this is all washington insider stuff. it won't spill out. democrats say, look, every day we're talking about ted cruz and government shutdown and not talking about the health care law, which we acknowledge has not polled well throughout the country, is a day we're more than happy to peg the republicans as stopping any type of positive legislation. so it's a fascinating day on capitol hill. i'll leave you with one interesting anecdote that i think you'll appreciate. i spoke to one gop earlier today, and they said that ted cruz was the gene simmons of the united states senate. >> more like the richard s

labor relations board. and today 201 house members sent a letter to senator mitch mcconnell demanding that the filibuster of nlrb nominations come to an end. >> without the nlrb, 80 million private sector workers will have nowhere to turn for legal protection. hardworking americans deserve better than mitch mcconnell's political stunts. >> a pillar of american justice is if you don't have a remedy then you don't have meaningful rights. >> our republican colleagues treat labor rights as toxic. they're wrong. >> if you don't have a remedy, you don't have meaningful rights. supreme court of labor law, the nlrb has been inoperable for a year and a half. it's really astounding. i mean, think about just turning off the supreme court for a year and a half. all those big decisions that came down the last few weeks, all the consequences for people seeking redress, gone, shuttered. there are real consequences the nlrb. it oversees all kinds of cases. if your boss illegally withholds wages or benefits, if your boss fires you for a facebook post about safety or salary in the workplace, fires for

happening, mitch mcconnell has said to harry reid, we're not going to negotiate, i want to see what's coming out of the house of representatives. what boehner has done in the house gop conference has done, delayed the talks that were seemingly going very well between reid and mcconnell to see what the house can produce. from conversations i've had with members, it's really, real tough sledding to use a cliche for them to get to 218 on this bill, whatever it might look like. the more conservative it gets, the more it will be dismissed by reid. on your point, it makes it easier in the sense that boehner and the house gop can pass this bill over to the senate, reid in theory could amend it, striking out things he doesn't like and keeping things they could agree on, on which there is some in there and move it forward. as we get towards the october 17th deadline, this creates a huge issue if the markets react negativively and on top of that, there are folks in the house gop that don't think october 17th is that bad. if the markets react negativively, they'll yank this and pass somet

this map from mitch mcconnell's office. it's being circulated among conservatives. it shows states where people are receiving cancellation notices. let's remember, republicans led the effort to deprive people insurance under the law. now, let's look at this map from the white house, it shows the republican-controlled states that rejected the law's expansion of medicate and would have cost these states nothing to implement and would have extended insurance to 5 million poor americans. 1.2 million people in texas alone could be covered right now yet they're not because of the ted cruz win of the republican party which is held bent on destroying the affordable care act in any way that it could. is that message getting through to the american people? is the president being successful in this regard explaining this? >> i don't think the white house still, after all this time, has fully figured out how to deal with this blanket opposition and obstructionism they get which is often fueled by statements not true and hyperbolic. right now the republican's hair is on fire because a couple mi

mitch mcconnell are the last best hope. can they succeed so far where everybody else hasn't. >> all of us are talking about spending, which is where we should have been in the first place. and i do sense tremendous amounts of unity within senate republicans. >> so wall street does not seem to be sharing that optimism. stocks opened sharply lower this morning after a weekend that went nowhere in washington. >> the whole financial world is looking at us right now and we can governor ourselves. we've just got to put our country first. we came here for a purpose. >> so for now the government is still closed and the next crisis is coming and the financial world is moving from caution, concern, now to serious worry. here's a result of this one combined mess. it covers, look at this, the "new yorker" saying congress is the haunted house. speaking of ghosts of the past, look who revealed herself in washington this weekend, sarah palin was at senator ted cruise's side at a rally at the world war ii memorial. >> how do you tell you're losing in american politics? sarah palin is standing right be

senate of which mitch mcconnell is looking at. he wants to be majority leader not minority leader. the republican party took it in the teeth. our abc poll out this week, the disapproval of how they handled it 74% having gone up 11 points in the course of the shutdown. the president stayed absolutely even. the democrats were at about 60, again not having 60 disapprove, 61. not having changed the needle on them. the republicans, the disapproval just kept going up. how does that work for them when you look at an election. >> one thing, the question of lessons learned is a lot of these members don't have to learn any lesson because the districts they come from are so gerrymandered when they go home they are told they did a great job. that applies to a lot of people running for senate as well because they tell the republican primary voters -- >> those people can't win statewide in those states. >> some can. ken cuccinelli's position who ran a very conservative primary race. those quotes were outside of the mainstream. but then he comes to the general election and fighting -- >> we talk